Allegations of owl villas and massive yachts are part of the opposition’s smear campaign.
This is how the Kremlin has acknowledged the reports that the Russian president Vladimir Putin70, may actually be the richest man in the world.
Numerous journalists, activists and organizations have been investigating Putin’s property arrangements for years and have found evidence that Putin’s inner circle has acquired property for him for hundreds of billions of euros.
For example, Putin’s enemy, To Alexei Navalny organization FBK (you switch to another service)an anti-corruption organization OCCPR (you switch to another service) and the Association of Investigative Journalists Proekt Media (you switch to another service) have managed to obtain pictures of the inside of Putin’s grand villas and found evidence that the real owner of the mansions is probably Putin himself.
This article brings together the information that has been found out about Putin’s assets.
Is Putin the richest man in the world?
Officially, Putin has no income other than the president’s salary, about 120,000 euros per year.
According to the Kremlin (you will switch to another service) in 2021, Putin owned two apartments, two garages and three vehicles.
Based on numerous reports, however, it seems that Putin’s assets are significantly larger than the Kremlin claims.
to the value of Putin’s real assets has been calculated (you switch to another service) even more than 200 billion euros.
If the claim is true, Putin would be richer than a financial magazine Forbes (you’re moving to another service) the top names in the list of the world’s richest people Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Bernard Arnault.
Putin’s methods: vassals and box office companies
Putin is likely to use shell companies and offshore accounts in his asset arrangements to make it difficult to link the flashy villas and luxury yachts to him.
Putin’s assets are mostly hidden in real estate, which journalists statements (you switch to another service) there may be tens of them.
According to groups investigating corruption, for example, a company called Ermira seems to be repeatedly linked to the real estate acquisitions of Putin’s inner circle. Dozens of other companies are linked to Putin’s alleged holdings.
Statements (you switch to another service) according to the company seems to be connected by the email domain LLC Invest. The e-mail’s domain name is hosted by an online service provider, which is linked, among other things, to the banking group Bank Rossiya.
The chairman of the bank’s board is the one named “Putin’s banker”. Yuri Kovalchukwho also owns land in the immediate vicinity of Putin’s alleged villas.
Companies using the LLC Invest domain name have assets worth at least four billion euros.
Based on the investigations, it seems that Putin’s “vassals” have probably acquired for the president, among other things, luxury yachts for 600 million euros and dozens of villas.
The presidential security service FSO and the Russian security service FSB are also probably involved in one way or another in hiding Putin’s assets.
For example, the FSB is allegedly the tenant of a luxury hotel on the shores of the Black Sea named “Putin’s Palace”.
According to Navalny’s FBK organization, the real owner of the villa is Putin. If his involvement in the villa is ever proven, it would be the biggest corruption scandal in Russian history.
Does Russia’s biggest penthouse belong to Putin?
It is likely that Putin and associates are using front companies in their mutual real estate deals, which are meant to increase the personal wealth of a small circle of influence in the Kremlin.
A group of Russian investigative journalists recently found out that Putin’s alleged girlfriend, an ex-gymnast Alina Kabaeva relatives have been involved in dozens of valuable real estate transactions, although the annual income of Kabajeva’s close relatives has been around 12,000–60,000 euros in recent years.
One of the properties is a luxury penthouse in Sochi with a size of more than 2,000 square meters, the value of which is approximately 500 million rubles, or six million euros.
The apartment was acquired in 2011 by a long-time friend of the Russian president and a media mogul Oleg Rudinov.
Rudinov’s son, Sergei Rudinov allegedly sold the penthouse for 90 million rubles, i.e. more than one million euros, to Kabajeva’s creditor through the Ermira company.
Kabajeva’s creditors are probably her close relatives: mother, grandmother, sister and cousins.
A total of at least 15 properties in different parts of Russia are registered in their names. The total value of the apartments is over 120 million euros.
39-year-old Kabajeva owns only one, 76-square-meter apartment in Moscow, which is worth about 28 million rubles, i.e. about 300,000 euros.
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